Gender equality in Rheumatology.

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Interleukin-6 and IgA-rheumatoid factor are crucial for baseline erosiveness, and anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies for radiographic progression in early rheumatoid arthritis treated according to a treat-to-target strategy.

OBJECTIVES: To define baseline clinical and immunological characteristics [anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPAs), immunoglobulin M (IgM)- and IgA-rheumatoid factor (RF), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels] involved in determining baseline erosiveness, outcome, and radiographic progression among seropositive and seronegative early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) patients. METHOD: The 408 ERA patients enrolled in the study were monitored every 3 months according to the treat-to-target strategy. At baseline and after 12 months, hand and foot radiographs were evaluated using the Sharp/van der Heijde erosion score. RESULTS: At diagnosis, seronegative patients were older and had higher Disease Activity Scores (DASs) than seropositive patients. A higher risk of erosiveness at baseline was conferred by IgA-RF positivity and IL-6 plasma levels ≥7.6 pg/mL, particularly when simultaneously present. In multivariate analysis, disease duration and IL-6 plasma levels ≥7.6 pg/mL arose as independent variables associated with presence of erosions at onset. Radiographic progression at 1 year follow-up, which occurred in 11.1% of ERA patients, was predicted by ACPA positivity, together with higher age at diagnosis. Despite similar percentages of good European League Against Rheumatism response, DAS and Boolean remission being observed over time among seropositive and seronegative patients and between erosive and non-erosive subjects, ERA patients who were erosive at onset, IgA-RF seropositive, and simultaneously having high baseline IL-6 plasma levels (≥7.6 pg/mL) were treated to a greater extent with tumour necrosis factor blockers after 12 months. CONCLUSION: IgA-RF positivity and IL-6 plasma levels are crucial for baseline erosiveness, while ACPA positivity represents the strongest risk factor for developing radiographic progression in ERA.

Detection of bone erosions in early rheumatoid arthritis: 3D ultrasonography versus computed tomography.

Three-dimensional (3D) volumetric ultrasonography (US) is an interesting tool that could improve the traditional approach to musculoskeletal US in rheumatology, due to its virtual operator independence and reduced examination time. The aim of this study was to investigate the performance of 3DUS in the detection of bone erosions in hand and wrist joints of early rheumatoid arthritis (ERA) patients, with computed tomography (CT) as the reference method. Twenty ERA patients without erosions on standard radiography of hands and wrists underwent 3DUS and CT evaluation of eleven joints: radiocarpal, intercarpal, ulnocarpal, second to fifth metacarpo-phalangeal (MCP), and second to fifth proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints of dominant hand. Eleven (55.0%) patients were erosive with CT and ten of them were erosive also at 3DUS evaluation. In five patients, 3DUS identified cortical breaks that were not erosions at CT evaluation. Considering CT as the gold standard to identify erosive patients, the 3DUS sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 0.9, 0.55, 0.71, and 0.83, respectively. A total of 32 erosions were detected with CT, 15 of them were also observed at the same sites with 3DUS, whereas 17 were not seen on 3DUS evaluation. The majority of these 3DUS false-negative erosions were in the wrist joints. Furthermore, 18 erosions recorded by 3DUS were false positive. The majority of these 3DUS false-positive erosions were located at PIP joints. This study underlines the limits of 3DUS in detecting individual bone erosion, mostly at the wrist, despite the good sensitivity in identifying erosive patients.